I received an email today from a sales rep who has a medical sales interview set up. He wanted to know if I could help him practice for a behavioral interview. I thought this would be a great topic to write about as behavioral interviews are becoming much more popular.
The basics-
A bevioral interview is a technique in which the interviewer will ask questions about events that happened in the past. They are trying to gain insight into your past behavior. This is based in Psychology 101 which tells us that the best predictor of future performance is past performance. Many people think behavioral and situational questions are the same. This is not true, situational questions deal with how you would handle something in the future.
Sample Behavioral Interview Questions
- Describe a time when you were faced with a major problem at work that tested your coping skills. What did you do?
- Give me a recent example of a time when you had to make a quick decision?
- Describe a time when you had to”think out of the box” to solve a problem?
- Tell me about a situation in the past where you had to deal with an angry client ot co worker. What did you do?
How to Answer Behavioral Based Questions
The best wat to answer these questions is by using the STAR method.
- Describe the (S)ituation or the (T)ask that had to be accomplished
- What (A)ctions did you take
- What was the (R)esult
Here is the trick to acing these questions-
- Use a specific example, don’t be vague
- Be concise, don’t ramble
- Focus on the Results-use numbers when you can
- focus on what you did, not what you would do
- Be prepared, think of specific examples before the interview
- Practice
- Practice
- Practice
Stayed tuned….Tomorrow I will be providing specific answers to bevioral questions..
Feel free to email me any questions regarding interviewing or anything else career related for that matter
